Tour de France 2018: Victorious Geraint Thomas in yellow as Team Sky dominate Stage 11
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Updated 19/07/2018 at 07:29 GMT
Team Sky’s stranglehold of the Tour de France came into view on Wednesday as Geraint Thomas took over the race lead ahead of team-mate Chris Froome after a sensational Stage 11 victory at La Rosiere in the first summit finish of the race.
Geraint Thomas en jaune dans les Alpes.
Image credit: Getty Images
Showing the form of his life, Welshman Thomas soloed clear of an elite group of race favourites on the final climb of the short but sharp 108.5km stage from Albertville, catching lone Spanish escapee Mikel Nieve on the home straight before powering to his first mountain stage win in a Grand Tour for Team Sky.
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Thomas produces brilliant finish to win stage 11
If defending champion Froome was denied a symbolic second place by a late lunge from the rallying Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) 20 seconds later, then Sky’s raid saw the British team seize the top two spots of the general classification after overnight leader Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) suffered on the gruelling succession of Alpine peaks.
Thomas now leads the four-time Tour winner Froome by 1’25” on GC as Dumoulin – the 2017 Giro champion and runner-up to Froome in Italy this May – rises to third place a further 19 seconds back.
Italy’s Damiano Caruso (BMC) and Mitchelton-Scott’s Nieve – both parts of a huge break that animated the stage from the outset – completed the top five before Ireland’s Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) came home for sixth, 27 seconds down.
A select quartet of GC riders – Romain Bardet (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) – crossed the line 59 seconds adrift after being distanced by the decisive and discrete attacks by Sky’s leading duo.
Yet other pre-race favourites fared far worse: Movistar’s Spanish duo Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde conceded valuable time along with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors), while last year’s runner-up Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) shipped over 25 minutes after losing touch on the first of five climbs, the Montee de Bisanne.
On a day Movistar did their best to disrupt the Sky juggernaut, Valverde had attacked from distance to join forces with team-mate Marc Soler. But once caught by a counter-attacking Dumoulin, Valverde faded fast – and neither Quintana nor Landa could build on what looked to be an exciting platform.
Instead, Sky used their power in numbers to neutralise the threat of the break and thin out the main pack before Thomas made his move five kilometres from the finish.
As his team-mate rode clear, Froome appeared to goad their rivals into reacting. Bardet and Martin took the bait before Froome attacked himself to join Dumoulin and Caruso with one kilometre remaining – just as Thomas danced clear in pursuit of an emphatic stage win.
In a truly action-packed day on the Tour, Stage 10 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) did enough from the break to consolidate his polka dot jersey, while world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) picked up maximum green jersey points for a second day running in the intermediate sprint.
But it was a day to forget for sprinters Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) who both finished well outside the time-cut and were eliminated from the race.
BREAKAWAY BONANZA: More than 40 riders rode clear in a hectic beginning to the shortest stage of the race so far as both Sagan and Alaphilippe looked to strengthen their grips on their respective green and polka dot jerseys.
With the intermediate sprint coming just 11.5km from the start, Sagan’s job was by far the easier of the two – the Slovakian showman easing to a victory that extended his lead over Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) to 121 points in the green jersey battle.
Alaphilippe, however, faced far stiffer competition for his KOM points in a break that also included the reigning polka dot jersey Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic), the Belgian Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) and the Estonian Rein Taaramae (Direction Data).
Alaphilippe made light work of his rivals to take maximum points over the summit of the Bisanne but would soon be dropped on the second climb of the day. Both Pauwels and Barguil added points over the remainder of the stage but Alaphilippe did enough to retain the lead on 61 points, with the chasing duo closing in on 49 points and 40 points respectively.
MOVISTAR MAGIC: Meanwhile, back with the pack it was Movistar who threw caution to the wind and refused to kowtow to the Sky train. Four riders in blue came to the front on the Col du Pre before Spanish veteran Valverde pinged clear with 55km still remaining.
With team-mate Marc Soler five minutes up the road in the break, Valverde soon had an ally as the Movistar duo combined to put the pressure on Froome and Thomas. Sky were also tested by the Bahrain Merida team of 2014 Tour winner Nibali, who came to the front with compatriot Franco Pellizotti on the penultimate climb.
And when Dutchman Dumoulin managed to escape on the descent of that climb, the Cornet de Roselend, he too could join forces with a team-mate from the break – Soren Kragh Andersen.
An unlikely alliance soon formed as both Dumoulin and Valverde rode with a gap of 50 seconds on their rivals on the build up to the final climb to the finish, at which point the remnants of the break still held a three-minute advantage over the pack.
SENSATIONAL SKY: When Nieve rode clear of a leading quartet of Barguil, Caruso and Astana’s Michael Valgren, it looked like the Spanish veteran was going to add maiden Tour scalp to his palmares following his recent Stage 20 win at Cervinia in the Giro.
But Sky clearly had other ideas. If Luke Rowe had by now been dropped after some hefty pulling, Gianni Moscon, Jonathan Castroviejo and Egan Bernal combined with force to slash the lead before Wout Poels and Michal Kwiatkowski put in huge shifts to reduce the pack to just 20-odd riders.
If the likes of Uran, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) were already long gone, Yates, Jungels and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) soon followed. For his part, Valverde – who had refused to work with Dumoulin – was caught and spat out, while Landa was slowly edged off.
With Dumoulin closing in on chasers Caruso and Jesus Herrada (Codifis), Thomas put in a huge attack to blow the elite pack to smithereens. Froome bided his time – waiting for Bardet and Martin to attack before putting in a decisive kick of his own.
Thomas caught Dumoulin and Caruso with 3km remaining and Nieve still 30 seconds up the road. The win looked in the bag – but just as Froome closed in on the chasing group, Thomas put in a final acceleration to zip clear, catch his disconsolate former team-mate, and take the biggest – and perhaps most symbolic – win of his career.
With Thomas now in yellow and holding an 85-second gap over Froome, it remains to be seen who Sky back in the overall quest for glory in Paris. More answers will come on Thursday’s stage to Alpe d’Huez – but for now, Sky’s rivals don’t have any.
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Thomas: To wear the yellow jersey is a massive honour
THOMAS SPEAKS: After securing the second yellow jersey of his career, the Welshman had some kind words for his friend Nieve, but said the stage win was too good to turn down.
It’s unreal. I didn’t expect it at all. It was more instinct when I went. I had a little gap and obviously Froomey could follow the other guys. I committed and got on to Dumoulin. I was then able to sit on because we had Froomey behind coming across. I could see Frosty [Mikel Nieve] and he’s a good mate. It’s a shame, but you know, I had to go for that win. It was super nice.
COMING UP: The Tour's 30th finish atop Alpe d'Huez takes the riders via the tried-and-tested Cols de la Madeleine and Croix de Fer ahead of the famous 21 hairpin bends of Dutch Mountain.
It's a familiar zoo when the Tour comes to town and with Pierre Rolland, Christophe Riblon and Thibaut Pinot winning on the last three visits, there will be high hopes for another home victory. Can Romain Bardet or Warren Barguil perhaps do the business? Or will it be another day of dominance for Team Sky?
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